The most important element to sustain life is the air we breathe. It is well known that all living creatures require a continuous supply of oxygen. However, the general quality of the air we breathe only contains approximately 20% oxygen. Fossil tests have indicated that past air from ancient times contained approximately twice the oxygen content as today's polluted air. Inhaling pure oxygen can be done, but prolonged inhalation can diminish one's lung capacity over time creating an unhealthy problem.
The second most necessary element for survival is water. However, public water supplies contain a substantial amount of toxic chemicals such as chlorine that is used to sanitize water. Bottled water has become more and more popular in recent times due to its' pureness, lack of chemicals and better taste than tap water. As a result water cooler systems have become more common place.
Water companies have attempted to add concentrated oxygen into their water supply by using large size plant generators during the bottling stage. However, the oxygen concentration in these oxygenated water supplies decreases over time because oxygen dissipates through the PET bottles as the bottled water takes time to be delivered to the end user customer. Thus, the longer the delivery time and the amount of time the product sits on the retail shelf the less oxygen content within the bottled water.
Some water companies have attempted to overcome the depreciation problem by adding excessive oxygen concentration during the bottling stage. However, the excessive oxygen concentration can alter the spring water taste of bottled water. The higher the level of dissolved oxygen, the faster oxygen dissipates out of the water.
The inventors are aware of the following U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,180 to La Raus; U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,776 to La Raus; U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,404 to Troglione; U.S. Pat. No. 3,843,521 to Zeff; U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,061 to Stopka; U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,571 to Dechene; U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,226 to Canfora; U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,075 to Dechene; U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,733 to Stanford; U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,495 to Hughes; U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,648 to Ramsauer; U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,619 to Matsui et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,610 to Moran et al. However, none of these patents adequately overcomes all the problems with the prior techniques previously described. For example, many of these patents are concerned with injecting ozone and not oxygen into a water supply. Additionally, these patents generally use large, complex and/or expensive components that would not be suitable for a bottled water cooler or tap water cooler.